Pathfinder - Transmuter Wizard Handbook

Disclaimer

I will use content from the core rules, but will intentionally omit any content not published
on the official Pathfinder SRD due to the
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handbooks. Also note that many colored items are also links to the Paizo SRD.

Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational.

Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances

Green: Good options.

Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character.

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Introduction

The Transmuter is a master of enhancement spells and shapechanging. While their
role is largely supportive at early levels, higher levels bring a chain of exciting
polymorph spells which allow the Transmuter to assume forms for any situation.

To get a good since of Transmuters, be sure that you read my
Practical Guide
to Polymorph to get a good since of how polymorph works, and how best to use
it.

Wizard Class Features

Hit Points: d6 hit points leaves you pretty squishy,
but you have a laundry list of defensive options to put in front of your hit points.
Because Transmuters spend a lot of time in melee while polymorphed, you will need
to spend some resources to address this issue.

Base Attack Bonus: Your lack of base attack bonus hurts
when you polymorph, so you become very dependent on your Strength/Dexterity. You
won't lose additional attacks because BAB does not provide extra attacks with natural
weapons.

Saves: Your only good save is Will, but because
Wizards only "need" one ability, you can afford to invest some of your ability
score points in Dexterity and Constitution.

Proficiencies: Wizards get very little in the way of
proficiencies, but beyond very early levels you won't need them. A light crossbow
is an excellent backup weapon for a Wizard, but stay away from Bows unless you
put points into Strength.

Skills: Wizards only get 2+ skills, but you get
every knowledge skill as a class skill, and your absurd intelligence will
give you plenty of skill points to throw around. Remember that permanently increasing
your intelligence will give you additional skill points retroactively.

Arcane Bond (Ex or Sp): You have the option of a familiar
or a bonded item, and both options have their merits. Keep in mind that you can't
use hand-held items while polymorphed because they meld into your form, but your
other items continue to function normally while polymorphed.

Familiar: Always a solid choice, the familiar is an
ever-present and ever-useful companion. Familiars can serve as scouts, assassins,
couriers, assistants, and even meat shields in a pinch. Their passive bonuses
to the wizard are roughly equal to a feat, and the provide the benefits of Alertness
when they are adjacent. Effectively, a familiar gives you two feats and a cool pet.
Remember that you can use spells with a target of "You" on your familiar, which
includes Polymorph spells. Polymorph your familiar into something useful and throw
it around in combat. Don't forget that your familiar probably gets Weapon Finesse
for free, which they can continue to use while polymorphed.

amulet: Jewelry is nice an safe. It doesn't take up
a hand, it's hard to take from you in combat, and it's a good option for enchanting.

ring: The ring is really the gold standard of bonded
items. It's incredibly small, it's easy to hide under a glove or on your person, it's
a very difficult target for sundering, and you can enchant is as per Enchant Ring
without the feat. Magic rings have a lot of great options, but Enchant Ring is rarely
worth the feat, so this gives you some options to save some money.

staff: You generally can't use it while polymorphed.

wand: You generally can't use it while polymorphed.

weapon: You generally can't use it while polymorphed.

Arcane School: You picked Transmutation. For information
on other schools, see the Wizard School Breakdown
For information on the Transmutation school specifically, see below.

Cantrips: Cantrips are amazing at every level.
Prestidigitation is often called "minor wish", and Detect Magic will never stop
being helpful. At low levels, Acid Splash provides easy, realiable damage.

Scribe Scroll: Scrolls are great for wizards, and
giving you the feat for free is nice. Use it to prepare scrolls of spells that you
need infrequently so that you can cover all of your bases.

Bonus Feats: 4 extra feats over the course of 20 levels
isn't game-breaking, but the Wizard would still be king if he didn't get any of these.
The addition of
Arcane Discoveries
gives wizards a handful of unique and incredibly powerful options in place of metamagic
and item crafting feats.

Spells: You have the best spell list in the game, and
every new book makes it better. Spells are why you play a wizard.

Transmutation School

Physical Enhancement (Su): The bonus is certainly nice, and
it greatly reduces the amount of money you need to spend on a belt. I would recommend
constitution since your hit points are terrible, and transmuters spend a lot of time
pretending to be a melee monster.

Telekinetic Fist (Sp): Not spectacular compared to similar
school powers, but it's bludgeoning damage so you don't have to worry about energy
resistance. It also provides you with a combat option at low levels before you can
Polymorph.

Change Shape (Sp): Some extra free shapeshifting. The
duration is pretty short, so you'll probably want to save this for moving about as
something with a special movement type, like flying across a chasm or digging through
the wall of a tunnel.

Enhancement School

The Enhancement subschool suffers from duration issues. The buffs are
too mediocre to justify their unbearably short durations.

Replacement Powers: Telekinetic Fist and Change Shape.

Augment (Sp): The duration is pretty short until very high
levels, but it can be nice to buff the fighter before you jump into combat.

Perfection of Self (Su): Sometimes you need to do a shit
load of damage in one round. At those times, buff your strength a whole bunch and stomp
on someone. This couples well with Polymorphing into something with Pounce.

Shapechange School

The Shapechange subschool trades your low level attack option for the ability to
gain additional natural attacks. This can be fantastic at high levels when you can
Polymorph, but it leaves you with very limited options until level 5.

Replaced Power: Telekinetic Fist.

Battleshaping (Su): The real benefit here is using it
while shapeshifted. Turn into a Dire Tiger and get a gore attack. Losing telekinetic
fist hurts at low levels, especially due to your limited combat options at low level,
but this can do some great things for you once you can Polymorph.

Opposing Schools

Abjuration: You will need the Abjuration school's defensive
buffs.

Conjuration: Conjuration is one of the best schools. In
addition to summoning effects, it includes teleportation spells.

Divination: Divination includes a huge number of utility
spells like Detect Magic and Scry.

Enchantment: In addition to some of the best save-or-suck
spells in the game, the Enchantment school provides lots of good utility and buff spells.

Evocation: When you need damage, turn into a tiger and
go crazy.

Illusion: Illusions are fun and can do a lot of creative
things, but they don't really provide a lot of utility.

Necromancy: Necromancy has very little that we need. You
don't need corpses to make minions, and it doesn't provide a lot of useful buffs, with
the exception of False Life.

Abilities

Because Polymorph augments your existing abilities instead of replacing them,
it is very important to strike a balance between Intelligence and your physical
ability scores. Your scores don't need to be insanely high like a Fighter or a
Rogue because they will be augmented, but every point helps.

Str: Most Polymorph forms depend on Strength for
attacks, damage, and combat maneuvers.

Dex: Important for saves, and for AC. Because you
will be a big scary target while Polymorphed, you need as much AC as you can get.

Con: Your hit points are garbage, and fortitude saves
will be a problem for you. Being Polymorphed gives you additional constitution, but
if you fall out of Polymorph and your constitution drops, you may die due to the
sudden loss of maximum hit points, much in the same way raging Barbarians do.

Int: You get magic, skills, and a bonus to knowledge
skills (which you will have a ton of). Because you need physical ability scores
you don't need to maximize this, but it should probably still be your highest
ability score at start so that you can get all of your new spell levels as soon
as possible.

Wis: You get high will saves, and more is nice, but
you have too many other important abilities to heavily invest in Wisdom.

Cha: dump to 7 and keep your mouth shut until its
time to throw some spells around.

25 Point Buy

20 Point Buy

Elite Array

Str:14

Dex:14

Con:15

Int:16

Wis:12

Cha:7

Str:14

Dex:14

Con:14

Int:15

Wis:12

Cha:7

Str:13

Dex:12

Con:14

Int:15

Wis:10

Cha:8

Unlike most Wizards, Transmuters lose quite a bit by being middle-aged. Polymorph
is a young person's game.

Races

Bonuses to Intelligence are nice, but not strictly necessary. Improved saves, bonus
physical stats, and defensive abilities are helpful.

Dwarf: Dwarves are a surprisingly good choice for Transmuters.
Bonus Constitution and Wisdom make them very durable, ajd a +2 on saves against spells is
fantastic. Darkvision is always helpful, but you lose it when you Polymorph.

Elf: Bonus intelligence is great, and the bonus to dexterity
and penalty to constitution are roughly equal for our purposes. The +2 bonus to penetrate
spell resistance won't come up much since Polymorph doesn't deal with Ppell Resistance. The
other benefits are highly situational, but certainly welcome.

Gnome: The bonus to Constitution is nice, but the penalty to
strength will hurt your damage. The other racial bonuses do basically nothing for you.

Half-Elf: The flexible ability bonus goes right into Intelligence,
but that's really all you get. You won't be multiclassing, and skill focus won't really matter
to you. Some of the Half-Elf's alternate racial traits help a bit, but they don't offer
anything particularly helpful for a Wizard. Humans are strictly better.

Half-Orc: The only thing you really get is the flexible
ability bonus. Half-Elves are better, and Humans are better than Half-Elves.

Halfling: Bonus to dexterity helps with a bad save, and the +1
racial bonus to all saves is nice, but the strength penalty hurts your damage. You don't
get anything from the other racial abilities, but Halfling isn't totally awful.

Human: The flexible ability bonus can go in any of your
physical ability scores, but I recommend Strength. Your bonus feat can be used for a lot,
but I would recommend Toughness so that you have lots of hit points even at first level.

Traits

Axe to Grind (Combat): Trait bonuses to attacks are hard
to find, and stack with basically everything else. You may spend a lot of time
by yourself Polymorphed in melee, which will get you a lot of use out of this.
It also helps while charging, which makes Pounce forms very scary.

Deft Dodger (Combat): Your saves need the help, and many
large forms will penalize your dexterity.

Dirty Fighter (Combat): One point of extra damage isn't going
to get you anything special, and you can't gurantee to bring this into play.

Reactionary (Combat): Going first is always an advantage.

Reckless (Combat): Because you are going to be in melee,
Acrobatics can be very useful.

Resilient (Combat): Your saves need the help.

Tactician (Combat): A small bonus to initiative, but you
won't be making a lot of attacks of opportunity in a day.

Blessed (Faith): Too hard to time.

History of Heresy (Faith): Divine spells are half of all spells,
but a +1 situational bonus isn't great.

Indomitable Faith (Faith): Will saves are you best save, but
better saves never hurt.

Arcane Temper (Magic): Initiative bonuses are great, and bonuses
to Concentration are hard to find. If you need to cast spells while you're in combat,
this can be very helpeful.

Desperate Resolve (Magic): Only better than Arcane Temper in
very rare situations.

Focused Mind (Magic): Bonuses to Concentration checks are hard
to find, and a +2 bonus is a big difference.

Magical Lineage (Magic): You don't have any one spell which you
will be depending on, which makes this difficult to use.

Pragmatic Activator (Magic): UMD is great, but your Intelligence
isn't as high it is for a typical Wizard, so this won't help you very much.

Shrouded Casting (Magic): Pick Transmutation and save yourself
a feat. Or your can just buy a spell component pouch.

Tenacious Shifting (Magic): 2 additional rounds may
not seem like a lot, but this is a significant increase for spells with duration
measured in rounds per caster level..

Life of Toil (Social): Your saves need the help.

Seeker (Social): Perception is always good.

Warrior of Old (Elf Racial): +2 initiative, and doesn't take
up a more versatile trait category.

Elven Reflexes (Half-Elf Racial): +2 initiative, and doesn't take
up a more versatile trait category.

Skills

Between traits and our 2+int skill ranks, we have lots of fantastic options.

Feats

General Feats

Item Creation Feats

Brew Potion: There are very few cases where scribe scroll
is not a better choice for you. In those cases, just buy the potions.

Craft Magic Arms and Armor: The second most use crafting
feat, Arms and Armor lets you craft items for the rest of the party. Keep in mind that
any armor you wear will be absorbed when you polymorph, and you lose the armor bonus
to AC.

Craft Rod: There are several excellent options for rods,
but since you can't pull them out while polymorphed, they are hard for you to use.

Craft Staff: While staves are very powerful, they are also limited
in utility. You also can't use them while polymorphed.

Craft Wand: Wands are cheap enough that spending a feat on
them is rarely worth the expense. You also can't use them while polymorphed.

Craft Wondrous Item: Wondrous Items are most of the items
in the game, and literally everyone uses them. Save the party a huge chunk of gold.

Forge Ring: Rings are very powerful and very exoensive.
Everyone can have two, which stretches this feats usefulness. It's still not as good
as Craft Wondrous Items, but it's a close second.

Scribe Scroll: You get it for free, and its fantastic. One
scroll of Gust of Wind or Wind Wall could save your life some day.

Metamagic Feats

Bouncing Spell: Very few of your spells target anything
which will make a save against them.

Burning Spell: You are not an evoker.

Concussive Spell: You are not an evoker.

Dazing Spell: You are not an evoker.

Disruptive Spell: If you are trying to prevent another spellcaster
from casting a spell, just kill them instead.

Heighten Spell: Increasing the DC of your spells is nice, but
since your list of known spells is functionally infinite, this isn't as important as it is for
Sorcerors.

Intensified Spell: You are not an evoker.

Lingering Spell: None of your spells are AOEs.

Maximize Spell: You are not an Evoker.

Merciful Spell: You are not an Evoker, and you are not a pacifist.

Persistent Spell: Make people reroll against your insanely high
spell DCs. Better than Bouncing Spell, but at twice the cost.

Piercing Spell: Very few of your spells target anything
which will use spell resistance to resist them.

Quicken Spell: At high levels, Quicken Spell is king. The +4
spell level hurts, but it gets you a second spell per turn. It is also hard to find spells
which you can cast while polymorphed without also using Silent and/or Still spell.

Reach Spell: You are not an Evoker.

Rime Spell: You are not an Evoker.

Selective Spell: None of your spells are AOEs.

Sickening Spell: You are not an Evoker.

Silent Spell: When you are Polymorphed, you typically can't
speak to cast spells. Until high levels when you can use Form of the Dragon, this is key
for casting spells while polymorphed.

Still Spell: Some Polymorph forms may have the body parts
needed to perform Somatic components (Apes, etc.), but these are generally not the best
forms available. Still Spell lets you cast spellsw hile you're running around as a Tiger.

Toppling Spell: You are not an Evoker.

Thundering Spell: You are not an Evoker.

Widen Spell: Awful. Truly awful.

Arcane Discoveries

Wizards can take an Arcane Discovery in place of a regular feat or Wizard bonus feat.

Arcane Builder: Crafting high level items takes an
insanely long amount of time. If this is a problem, grab this discovery.

Fast Study: If time to prepare your spells is frequently
a problem, something is very seriously wrong in your campaign.

Feral Speech (Su): Why would a wizard ever want to talk
to an animal when he can summon demons?

Golem Constructor: Why have golems when you can just
Dominate people?

Immortality (Ex): Live forever. Not really a game effect, but
very cool flavor-wise.

Opposition Research: By level 9, spending two slots to
cast an opposition school spell isn't going to cripple you. If you really need a
spell from an opposition school, two spell slots is likely worth less than a feat slot.

Split Slot: Since so many of enchantment spells are
going to be save-or suck, your high level spell slots are likely more productive.
However, don't underestimate the value of low levels buffs.

True Name (Sp): Planar Binding is a good spell, and this
effectively lets you use it at will as a move action.

Staff-Like Wand: You can't use wands while Polymorphed.

Weapons

Weapons aren't your first choice, but they're useful at very low levels.

Dagger: Carry one or two for utility purposes,
but don't plan to pull them out in combat.

Light Crossbow: Better range than acid splash,
fairly cheap, and doesn't rely on your garbage Strength score. Carry one at
early levels, then dump it when you have enough spells to get through the day.

Javelin: You have some strength to put behind
thrown weapons, so javelins are a good, cheap option at low levels.

Armor

If you need AC, you're doing something wrong. Still, it doesn't hurt to
get some cheap protection. Keep in mind that Mage Armor is generally your
best bet when you need AC, but Mage Armor isn't always on.

Mithral Buckler: For 1165gp, a mithral buckler
is +1 ac with no ACP or spell failure. At high levels when gold falls out of
your pockets like lint, this is a cheap way to boost your AC. You can even
make it +1 for less than the cost of the base item.

Haramaki: +1 AC, 1 pound, no ACP
or spell failure. Way less cool than the Silken Ceremonial robes, but it's
a quarter the weight and one tenth the price.

Cross-Classing and Prestige Classes

Don't, unless you have a specific concept in mind. If you must multiclass,
try very hard to not give up spellcaster levels. Also keep in mind that classes
which give you spellcasting do not allow you to learn spells for free
when you gain levels.

Example Build - Master Transmographist

Form of... a Dire Tiger!

The best shapeshifters in the game, Transmuters get every Polymorph spell
written, and get access to them faster than anyone but Druids. With careful
character choices and a few items, the Transmuter can turn into a combat
machine rivaling even the best Fighters.

This build takes a while to build momentum, but starting at level 5 you come
screaming into combat, where you can stand alongside the best of fighters.

We will give up the Illusion and Necromancy schools. Evocation doesn't give
us much in the long term, but it gives us some options at low levels before we
can polymorph. In addition, we will use the Shapechange subschool in order to
get the Battleshaping school ability.

Abilities

We will assume the 25-point buy abilities suggested above, but the other
suggested abilities can also use this build without any problems.

Race

Because we want to survive our role on the battlefield, we're going to
use the Dwarf for this build. This changes very little about our character
options, so if you want to play a Human you can use the same build and take
Toughness as your Human bonus feat.

Skills

With 16 intelligence, we only get 5 skills, so we really need to pick

Knowledge (Arcana)

Knowledge (Dungoeneering)

Knowledge (Religion)

Knowledge (The Planes)

Spellcraft

Traits

Deft Dodger and Reactionary. All of our saves will be excellent, and we
will have a nice bonus to initiative.

Levels

Level

Feat(s)

Notes and Tactics

New Spells

1 - Wizard

Dodge

Scribe Scroll*

Arcane Bond (Familiar: Weasel), Battleshaping

First level is hard for you. Your AC is bad, even with Dodge,
but you have 10 hit points. Because you have decent dexterity and
strength, grab a stack of javelins to throw. Your spells won't do
a lot of damage, so save them for buffing you party. Bring Acid
Splash for enemies with high AC.

Favored class bonus: 1 Extra Hit Point

Protection from Evil

Mage Armor

Enlarge Person

Feather Fall

Magic Weapon

2 - Wizard

Level 2 is very boring. Stick to your level 1 tactics.

Favored class bonus: 1 Extra Hit Point

Shield

Obscuring Mist

3 - Wizard

Toughness

The combination of Magic Weapon, Enlarge Person, and Bull's
Strength will do a lot to buff your fighter, which will help him
do the damage which you hope to be doing in a few levels.

Favored class bonus: 1 Extra Hit Point

Scorching Ray

Bull's Strength

4 - Wizard

Nothing really exciting, but you pick up some situationally useful
buff spells.

Ability Score Increase: Constitution (17 to 18)

Favored class bonus: 1 Extra Hit Point

Resist Energy

Darkvision

5 - Wizard

Power Attack

Arcane Discovery: Multimorph*

Physical Enhancement +2.

Finally! Time to go to work! Beast Shape I lets you turn into
a Deinonychus and murder things. Without the Beast Shape bonuses,
you should have a total of around 41 hit points (not bad at all),
which is enough to keep you in the fight for a while. Mage Armor
should still work while Polymorphed, and coupled with dodge your
dino form should have 19 AC (not counting items or other spells
like Shield and Protection from Evil), and your saves are fortitude
+5, Reflex +6, and Will +6 (before items and racial bonus against
spells). Aside from your low AC, you're fairly durable. Your damage
is respectable, and Power Attack adds a couple points.

Keep in mind that you don't get pounce yet, but once you're in
reach you get 5 attacks. If you have someone handy to cast Magic
Fang, you will get a ton of extra damage out of it.

Multimorph is difficult to use at this level because the duration
of our spells is so short, but it's great for changing into a bird
and flying away when combat takes a turn for the worse. You could
also polymorph into a Dire Rat, sneak in, then Multimorph into
a Deinonychus to charge your enemies from behind.

Don't forget to use Battleshaping to add additional natural
attacks (like a Gore) to your Deinonychus form. Because you don't
get a lot of damage out of power attack, you need to capitalize on
your number of attacks.

Favored class bonus: 1 Extra Hit Point

Beast Shape I

Haste

6 - Wizard

Nothing really exciting, but you pick up some more spells.

Favored class bonus: 1 Extra Hit Point

Displacement

Heroism

7 - Wizard

Defensive Combat Training

Beast Shape II brings us a lot of great things, but the most
important is Pounce. Beast Shape into a Dire Tiger, pounce on
things, and throw a pile of damage dice. Deinonychus still gets
more attacks, but the stat bonuses are considerably greater for
chaging to a Large creature, so the Dire Tiger is a better choice.

Dire Tiger also has Grab, which is great to use on physically
weak targets like spellcasters. Maintaining a grapple deals whatever
damage was dealt by your initial Grab attack, so you get to apply
your claw damage every time you maintain your grapple. Defensive
Combat Training will increase your CMD, which makes it very difficult
for your targets to escape your grapple.